Thursday, February 18, 2016

We arrived at our apartment in
France last week. A friend from Aix en Provence came to the airport to greet
us. Our neighbor had driven from Vaison la Romaine to pick us up and bring us
back to our “pied à terre” (“pied à terre” is our term to describe
our 400 sf villa <]; > ).

The next day, we were sorting
clothes and organizing things at the apartment for our séjour here. Since we
rent out our apartment when we are in the states, our return often includes the
exercise of finding objects and returning them to where they belong (where I think they belong.) There have been
times when I have found a kitchen utensil at a spot different from the one I
had chosen and then decided that whoever moved it had made an improvement in
our kitchen arrangement.

As I was working at nesting, I found
that I was smiling. At one point Ellen looked at me and asked: “What?” to which
I replied: “I can’t stop smiling.”

I know that part of the curve in my
smile comes from recognizing how lucky I am to be able to live this dream.
Another part of the smile comes from how much I enjoy the French language and things
French. Being here makes me happy.

Looking at the differences between
here and there is pronounced this year. I smiled when I saw that diesel fuel
costs less than a Euro per liter!
That translates into almost $4 per gallon in the states but I have never seen
fuel prices as low as they are now.

The taste of a French baguette is
something I miss during our time stateside. I don’t know whether it is the
flour or the climate or the way they bake them but I take a bite of a baguette from
one of the local bakeries (there are six in our village) and it makes me smile.

“Exotic” foods are not so exotic in
France and thus a whole lot cheaper (and that makes me smile). Lamb is
affordable and fresh and local but one can also find rabbit and duck and fresh
mussels and… and I won’t even discuss the differences in cheese selections.

We have the good fortune of having
wonderful friends in the states as well as in France. I am probably
being repetitive given other blog post that I have written but friends enrich
life and make me thankful and make me smile. In fact, I can’t stop smiling.